SouthWord brings together a bevy of Southern writers
Wendell Berry arrives in Chattanooga next week, bringing a message of the wisdom of his principled life: “My purpose as a writer is to do the work I have been given to do as well as I can do it. I would like to see a trend toward reading and literacy, but am otherwise not much interested in trends.”
A literary triple-threat—poet, social critic, and humanistic fiction writer—Mr. Berry scoffs at the toils and avoids the snares of modern technology, writing his novels and essays by hand and communicating with friends (and journalists) by hand-written letters, in elegant cursive at that. He finds contentment and purpose in old-style farming, and serenity in family and community life in his hometown of Port Royal, Kentucky.
But for four decades, Mr. Berry’s voice has rung and sung across the land, a blend of Robert Frost, Thoreau, and the prophet Jeremiah.
In strident but dignified admonitions, he points up the apocalyptic folly of modern “progress” in the areas of Big Agra and Big Food, and the primacy of tending one’s own garden: “I have friends and loved ones, living and dead, who occupy my heart and my thoughts. My pastures, which I have kept carefully for many years, now look reassuringly healthy and beautiful to me.”
He delivers the keynote address next Friday evening at the SouthWord 2017 Literary Feast. Readings, panel discussions, and unique events take place at UTC on Friday, Nov. 3, and Bessie Smith Hall and Lindsay Street Hall on Saturday, Nov. 4.
In his reverence for the life well lived and the word well written, Mr. Berry will be among like-minded “fellows,” who comprise the Fellowship of Southern Writers, co-sponsors with the Southern Lit Alliance of this event, previously known as the Celebration of Southern Literature.
Another towering figure of Southern literature, Jill McCorkle, has attended and presented at the conference since the 1990s, when “in those years, such literary greats as Eudora Welty, James Dickey and George Garrett (among many others) were in attendance.”
Recalling her most memorable moment, Ms. McCorkle evoked “Wendell Berry’s introduction of Ernest Gaines several years ago. I was so aware of the literary greatness on that stage and moved by the great testament of their friendship—I felt privileged to witness it.”
This year, Ms. McCorkle and two long-time friends, fellow author Lee Smith and professional musician Matraca Berg will sing for their literary supper in a program entitled, “The Roots of Literacy Music.”
The trio and another friend Marshall Chapman have practiced and performed for 20 years, reading and singing and having a good ol’ time, which they’ll share with an audience Saturday afternoon at Lindsay Street Hall, where author book signings will also take place.
The program promises more than 40 major Southern writers, including some receiving awards for their careers and achievements, and some young voices as well.
In the former category, the Woodward Franklin Award for Historical Writing will recognize Wayne Flynt, a two-time Pulitzer Prize nominee and renowned Alabama historian whose most recent book is “Mockingbird Songs: My Friendship with Harper Lee”.
In a panel discussion on Ms. Lee’s literary career and legacy, Mr. Flynt will address whether she “was shy, introverted, reclusive, or just intensely private, and what these different words mean.”
A young playwright receiving the Bryan Family Drama Award, Jireh Holder is a new name being illuminated off-Broadway with his civil-rights-era play, “Too Heavy for Your Pocket”, in his words, “an honest reflection on a moment in time: the joy, the difficulties, and the progress made. It’s about two young couples who are very much in love—who doesn’t want to spend an evening with them?”
Mr. Holder confides that after his father saw “Too Heavy” in New York and also “Phantom of the Opera” on the same trip, the playwright was too apprehensive to ask which one he preferred. In a confessional mood, he admits to his secret affinity with all the fiction writers he’ll be rubbing elbow patches with.
“I have always wanted to be a novelist,” he explains, but he lacks the patience and scores too high on extroversion. “So to be honest, I plan on pretending to be a novelist for the duration of the weekend.”
One who won’t have to pretend is noted fiction writer Liza Wieland, who not only receives the Robert Penn Warren Award but also shares her craft in a writer residency at Baylor School, a task of giving back that many of the SouthWord attendees find time to do.
“I love teenagers,” she says. “They’re so raw and uncertain and willful and awkward and beautiful. I love it when they pretend to be blasé about an experience, but if you look, you can see they are taking it in with every nerve in their bodies.”In the same spirit, many Chattanoogans will be “taking it in” at the 16 major sessions of the SouthWord event, detailed here at southernlitalliance.org